GreenEyedHawk:
[BG]There's a contest that happens every day on a local rock station we listen to at work. The contest happens at the same time every day, which falls during our break time. Two other co-workers and I have been trying for fun to win; plus the prize isn't bad. The just-for-being-the-right-caller prize is a round of golf for 4 at a beautiful local country club, one that none of us could really afford to play at if we wanted. It's a really nice prize if you golf, but I don't. The guess-the-song prize is a gift card to a local specialty store all three of us would definitely shop at. We agreed that if one of us got through and won, my two co-workers would each choose a friend to form the foursome for the round of golf (fine by me, like I said I don't golf) and that we'd split the gift card equally between us. We've also always made it clear that anyone else who wants to join us in trying to win is welcome to do so. If anyone had joined us (nobody did) we would have come up with an equally fair way to divide the prizes (or, I suppose as well that it would be well within a winner's rights to say "You guys can split it if you want but if I win I'm keeping it all for myself.") [/endBG]

Well, today I goth through and I was the right caller! So I won the round of golf. I didn't get the song right though (they take a song clip and play it backward and you have to guess what it is. Usually I nail it, but not today. Grrrr!) Even so, I held up my end of the deal and told my two co-workers that I will go pick up the golf passes on Tuesday and bring them in to work on Wednesday. The manager overheard us talking about it and asked, "Oh, did you win?" I replied yes, I won the golf but not the gift card, and that I was going to give it to Joel and Jade. Manager looked at me sternly and said, "You should divide it equally among EVERYone! I mean, *I* golf!" I shrugged and said, "It's a foursome of golf, it can only be divided so many ways. And anyways, that's what we agreed to between us. Nobody else was interested in playing." He looked pretty miffed when he walked away.

I don't think I did anything wrong. We never excluded anyone; nobody else was interested in joining us in trying to win. We had a bargain between us, which we were willing to modify if anyone else joined in. And anyway, I feel like it's my prize to do whatever I want with, whether it's give it away, use it myself, or never even bother to go retrieve it. Did we do something wrong here?

VorFemme:
The only thing that you did wrong was not do what the manager (who tried to horn in on this once he heard the words "won a prize") wanted done instead of what you agreed to in advance.

Mind you, you only did this wrong in the manager's opinion...

JenJay:
You didn't do anything wrong. Just because you won while at work (on your break, so your time) doesn't mean anything. If you had been gifted the same thing and offered it to your two friends, would he have demanded you give him a share? If you guys had gone in on lottery tickets and won, would he tell you to split it equally among everyone else? He knew the three of you were trying to win and he didn't get in on the fun. His loss.

FauxFoodist:
Your manager reminds me of the children's story where the hen does all this work to bake a loaf of bread and no one is interested in helping her until it's time to eat the bread (she shared it with none of them).

TheaterDiva1:
So wait... You won a foursome in golf and your manager expected you to share it with everyone? I assume there're more than four people working there... How did he think that would work?!?